Haymaker In Heaven

From one of Norway’s leading writers, translated into English for the very first time, comes a transatlantic novel of dreams, sacrifice, and transformation set at the turn of the twentieth century. The year is 1874. Nesje is a recent widower with a young son, working as a haymaker on an estate in the town of Molde and steadily clearing his own small holding. Then he meets Serianna—an outsider, looking for work, who takes him fishing and smokes a pipe and is thoroughly unlike anyone he’s met before. Soon the two fall in love and marry, and Nesje begins to dream of a prosperous future. But prosperity is hard to come by. Some Norwegians—including Serianna’s spirited sister, Gjertine—have begun to immigrate to the American West, attracted by the glimmer of land and commerce. One of Nesje’s sons follows, while another moves to the city and becomes a wealthy merchant, and another is adopted by Serianna’s childless brother and sister-in-law. In Norway and in America, however, the turn of the century is approaching: mechanization is superseding skilled labor, the moneyed classes are growing ever more powerful, and sacrifices don’t always deliver what was promised. Haymaker in Heaven is a sprawling saga—drawn from Edvard Hoem’s own family history—and a vivid portrait of two countries at a critical moment of intersection.

This Group Discussion Guide is the companion to the HEAVEN DVD with 7 video sessions taught by Randy Alcorn and based on his best-selling bookHEAVEN. Produced by Lamplighter Media and Lifetogether Publishing this study is based on the 5 Biblical purposes to enhance fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism and worship. After watching the 15 minute video segment the group goes through this discussion guide. We recommend for each person in the group to have their own copy so they can utilize group forms, note pages, and personal assessments to chart and track their spiritual growth. For the optimal experience, included are daily reflections that coincide with Randy's 50 DAYS OF HEAVEN devotional. In between group sessions, there are 7 optional devotions to reflect on and apply to real-life applications. This study is also package in a LEADER KIT that comes with a Discussion Guide and DVD with additional savings. HEAVEN DVDs are also sold separately.

In a political culture infused with debates about personal liberties, the role of government, and even the definition of "freedom" itself, Haymaker tells the story of an isolated Michigan town that becomes the flashpoint for some of the principal ideological debates of our day. When a libertarian organization selects the town as its flagship community, hundreds of its members migrate and settle within the town's borders. The resulting clash with local townspeople is violent and impassioned, even as the line that divides the two sides increasingly blurs. The story follows characters on both of these sides: an eccentric millionaire known as The Man in White, who is still viewed as an outsider even after living in Haymaker for thirty years; a policewoman trained in hostage and suicide negotiations who questions raising children in this new environment; a teenage girl devoted to basketball and her desire to leave home, who has a close but complicated relationship with her uncle, a local who fistfights outsiders in an annual challenge; a libertarian PR expert, just hoping to calm the storm; and the town's mayor, who owns a local diner and is raising a baby daughter as her husband becomes tragically unhinged. A town first settled by lumberjacks, prostitutes, and roughnecks, Haymaker's present becomes as volatile as its past. Haymaker is a story about the failure of best intentions and the personal freedom of individuals to do good or to harm. This witty and politically charged novel will certainly appeal to Michiganders and Midwesterners, but will also interest those looking for an entertaining fictional account of a situation that could plausibly play out in one of the many small, remote towns in the country.

The author recounts his years in Vietnam as a conscientious objector, serving as a teacher and a rescue worker for an organization that sent children with war injuries to the United States.

God has gone missing, and not simply between the sheets of the mortal residents of Perido. With little recourse, the rival religious groups, the church of Iron and chapel of steam, do the unthinkable and hire a firm of necromancers to track their missing diety. Enter Emma Elric, apprentice to Lyceum, and new-hire to Abelworth, Cain, and Lyceum. Eager to impress her boss, Emma will do whatever it takes, including selling parts of what make her up. Goh Si-Woo and Caitlyn Alderberry had devoted themselves to Iaralie. As the first to notice their God's disappearance, their anxiety has them working together, despite how bad it looks, to save the one thing that's given their lives meaning. The deeper they dig, the more their world changes, and the more they are forced to reexamine their beliefs. Third Heaven's Throne is about belief, how the stories we're told shape the world, and what happens when powerful people control those stories. It is full of flesh and bones, misery, anxiety, terrible jokes, and queer love.

One marine squad, led by young upstart Jim Raynor and giant Tychus Findlay, are prepared to battle a corrupt government as it works for interplanetary domination in this action-packed thriller set in the StarCraft universe. For the poor, hardworking citizens of the Confederacy’s fringe worlds, the Guild Wars have exacted a huge toll. Swayed by the promise of financial rewards, a new batch of recruits joins the fight alongside a slew of mysteriously docile criminals—and a few dubious military leaders. Eighteen-year-old Jim Raynor, full of testosterone and eager to make things right at home, ships off to boot camp, but he soon discovers that the official mission is not what he’s really fighting for. For the first time ever, StarCraft enthusiasts will learn the ori­gins of the enduring friendship between Jim Raynor and the streetwise soldier Tychus Findlay. Watch as they battle on the front lines of a fierce interplanetary war and bear witness to the Confederacy’s rank corruption—corruption so reprehensible that it rains immeasurable death and destruction upon the government’s own people.